VATICAN CITY - In back-to-back audiences with a group of French young people and an Italian association for deaf people, Pope Francis cited personal example and witness as a vital piece in the church's evangelization mission.

VATICAN CITY – Condemning an economy that encourages speculation more than entrepreneurship, warning priests and religious that they share responsibility for the vocations crisis and telling young people they are right to be puzzled by nations that close their doors to people fleeing persecution, Pope Francis spent a busy day in Genoa.

Before I entered the seminary I spent time considering the legal profession. I worked, as part of such discernment, at a law firm where I met some faith-filled individuals who have become lifelong friends. Two of them are a couple, both lawyers, who live in one of Toronto’s comfortable suburbs.

VATICAN CITY – Italian journalist and author Gianluigi Nuzzi did not plot the release of leaked Vatican financial documents with another journalist and was well within his rights to publish the information he received from a Spanish monsignor, a defense witness told a Vatican court.

The Holy Spirit strengthens us so that we may bear witness to the Lord even through persecution – even to the point of sacrificing our life. But also through the small persecutions like gossip and criticism. That’s what Pope Francis said Monday at the daily Mass at the Santa Marta guesthouse in the Vatican.

At his daily Mass on Thursday, Pope Francis said it is “the saints of ordinary life, and the martyrs of today that carry the Church forward.” They do so, he said, “with their consistent and courageous witness to the Risen Christ, thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit.”

VATICAN CITY - From modern-day martyrs to those who quietly care for the sick or elderly, Pope Francis remembered all those who “sacrifice themselves daily,” following Jesus in serving others and giving witness to the Gospel.